That stubborn bit of hope in her just wouldn’t die.
Still, she stood in front of the mirror once again. She had less than an hour now until sunset. Less than an hour before confessing her feelings and—
Someone banged repeatedly on a door, the pounding made with a desperate rhythm and followed by a, “Telos, Telos please tell me you’re here—”
Shit. She wasn’t ready yet— “C-come in!” It was only after she answered him that she realized this wasn’t where they were supposed to meet at all.
The door was practically thrown open by Tobias, his hair and uniform askew, his eyes wild with panic. “Have you seen Braveheart? Or that pretty bitch?”
She opened her mouth and shut it, stunned until the calm of crisis came over her. Focused now, she shook her head. “No, neither.” Something was very wrong.
Tobias licked his lips, running his fingers through his hair and cursing before asking in a hurried tone, “Do you have a tracking spell?”
“Yes, but I need something of theirs, preferably their magic signature.” She paused, thinking with a frown. “Though… I’m not sure it would work on Athereon. Her signature is too weak.”
Tobias’s eyes were eclipsed by his wolf, his aura suddenly filling the room as fur burst out over his skin. With a scream of, “Fuck!” he turned, throwing a fist into the door and shattering it into pieces. His breathing ragged, he barely managed to fight off the shift.
Silence hung between them as he regained control.
Telos had never felt the distance between them so keenly as that moment. She had known, intellectually, that they had adopted the huntress into their pack. She’d known that.
She had.
Tobias’s wolf gleamed in his eyes, his menacing aura threatening her.
Threatening her.
Her.
Tobias squeezed his eyes shut, his hands over his face, the struggle to suppress his wolf’s instincts to rip into her in anger palpable between them. Only once his eyes had returned to hazel, his back leaning against the ruined hinges of the door did she see the tears of pain and panic in his eyes. His fingers fisted his hair as he whispered brokenly, “We need to find her.”
Telos’s stubborn hope, this pitiful thing that had survived twenty years by his side, died with the look in his eyes. It was wrong of her, she knew, to react in this way. To feel despondent when the huntress was clearly in danger.
But nothing had ever made it clearer.
His wolf didn’t see her as pack. Had never once accepted her as pack. The wolf’s soul in Tobias’s body considered her nothing more than an outsider.
He would never be able to love her as she loved him without both souls agreeing.
She was rejected before she had even confessed.
The silence stretched as he broke and she shattered. Still, perhaps it was the nature of love to give strength when needed. Even as her heart fell to pieces, a numbness buffered it, allowing her to gather herself. To be strong for him.
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At least, for this one last time.
Stepping forward and shoving her broken heart onto the shelf where it belonged, she took charge. “I’ll head to her chambers. If there’s a single spell she cast in there, a single hair she left behind, I’ll find her.”
The despair that had crept into his face was slowly overcome by hope, and hoarsely, he nodded. “Thank you, Telos.”
“Always,” she whispered as she passed him, knowing that this would always be true, no matter how many pieces her heart broke into.
Squirt went back to stirring, her heart hammering in her chest.
She knew who this was.
Her only hope was that she could run before honeyed words secured her compliance.
She’d have to abandon the stove and her dinner to even have a chance at making it.
Standing stiffly, she swiped up her bow as “Fenry” asked sleepily, “Where you going?”
Squirt muttered, “To take a shit.”
“Oh. Okay. What about your dinner?”
She swallowed back the bile, hoping to keep her tone as nonchalant as ever. “It’ll be fine. If it starts to burn, stir it.”
She took a few steps forward, freedom just beyond the clearing when her body was brought to a forceful stop.
“Ali’anya, stop.”
The blood drained from her face at the familiar command.
“You should know not to ask your betters to do such menial tasks.”
Her body wouldn’t move.
“Whoops, did I just give myself away? That’s alright. After all, this makes things easier, don’t you think?”
Out of pure spite, she didn’t answer. Instead, her mind raced as she desperately tried to get her body to move. To think of some solution.
She did the only thing she could think of.
She turned to face her mistress, her arms loosely clasped behind her back as she bowed and waited to be addressed.
A deep sigh. “It is good to see that the Wylds have not turned you into a savage unable to recognize your betters, even if you’re mouthier than I’d like. Still, we can work on that. After all,” the elf woman’s voice dripped with satisfied victory, “your life is mine until I release you from your debt.”
A mistake made when Squirt was young and stupid and impressionable. Keeping as still as possible, she slowly inched her fingers towards her pouch. If she could reach it, if she could reach a blazing ant powder bomb, that would keep her from speaking another damn command.
“It seems like you’ve been doing good work for me in the meantime. All those patents for the great Athereon… obviously too good of a reward for someone like yourself. No, as soon as we make it back to the Capital, I’ll claim what is rightfully mine just in time for the council vote next year. I suppose I should reward you for good timing.”
Cold terror shot through her.
“Ali’anya, come here and eat your reward.”
Her movements stilted as she fought against the command with every fiber of her being, it didn’t work. She was a passenger in her own body, the deadly combination of a life-debt and Siabith’s charm magic beyond anything Squirt could resist.
Like the psychopath she was, she was now holding the ogre ear treat in her hand. “Ali’anya, kneel for me. I’ll feed you like the good pet you are.”
Her body dropped in front of the buxom, beautiful elf, her head lowered over the woman’s lap.
A soft hand with deadly claws ran through her hair with a regretful sigh. “You cut your hair off. It was so beautiful, too, for a greenling. We’ll have to grow it back. Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of you, my pet. You’re mine, always and forever, after all.”
Never. Never again.
“Open your mouth, please.”
Tears of fury and frustration gathered in her eyes as she fought helplessly against the command.
Her voice a soothing, even cadence, Siabith murmured, “Don’t worry, pet. Once you’ve had your treat, you’ll fall into a deep sleep. I was cruel last time, extending it as a punishment for defying me. I won’t make that mistake again. This time I will take your wings, and then the only one you’ll be able to rely on will be me.”
She’d rather die.
When the bite of treat ended up in her mouth, she lifted her head and spat it out at the woman’s face, using the distraction to reach for her pouch and grab out a blazing ant bomb.
Fury twisted Siabith’s diamond like silver eyes and perfect features, contorting them with rage as she grabbed Squirt by her hair. Squirt cried out in pain as Siabith hissed out, “Listen here, pet—make no mistake, your life could be pampered and cared for or a hellish misery. I’m not picky.”
Squirt’s fingers found the bomb and in a fit of manic insanity, Squirt gave the woman a wild, crazed grin and bit out, “Eat shit, Bitha.”
The woman’s hand pulled back for a slap as Squirt launched herself forward, surprising the woman enough to shove the bomb into her mouth. The move loosened her grip on Squirt’s hair, and when Siabith opened her mouth to try and command her, the blazing ant powder burst. She fell back with a scream, ripping out some of Squirt’s hair when Squirt scrambled away. The screams followed her as she raced through the forest thinking desperately to herself about where to go and what to do.
For now, she prayed as she ran from the tortured screams of her former lover.
OOPS!
I Accidentally Started An
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
WHAT TO EXPECT:
- ? From Magic to Machines: Watch as a high-fantasy world grapples with modern engineering and mass production.
- ? Scientific Progression: Follow the logical evolution of a protagonist using 21st-century knowledge to solve medieval problems.
- ? Culture Clash: Experience the friction when ancient elvish traditions meet the relentless pace of an industrial age.
Kingdom Building Isekai Fantasy Modern Knowledge